[NL2-NL10] 03/12 SSS Adv. Coaching - 2nd Barrels and Isolationraises

This post has been edited 1 time(s), it was last edited by xarry2: 14.03.2008 10:57.

How many times and in what situations do you play a 2nd barrell as a shortstack?

Overall I think that we shouldn't apply 2nd barrels as often as a bigstack does. This is mainly due to our small stack.
If we make a 2nd barrel it is mostly a direct push on the Turn. Our opponent only hast to face one bet whereas he
has to fear another bet on the River if he plays against a bigstack. Thus our 2nd barrels will create less Fold Equity.
Nevertheless there are situations where 2nd barrels are useful and profitable.

a) scarecard on the Turn
b) remaining equity (nearly) commits us anyway
c) we're facing a very loose opponent and have a valuebet with A-High
d) we assume to be floated on the flop very often

ad a)

We have AQ: Flop 855 Turn K => our opponent will often have a PP.
We can easily represent a K now and if we get called though we still have 6 Outs left.

Feel free to post some other good opportunities!

ad b)

We have pickes up a strong or medium draw on the Flop but our cbet gets called. Often we will only have a stack left which equals something like half Pot Size or even a bit less. This means that if we would play c/c we get about 3:1 odds on the turn and need therefore at least 25% equity to call profitable. With many draws we still have a equity comparable to 25% (9 Outs ca 20.5%, 10 Outs <25%) If we now consider that our opponent will at least sometimes make a bluff if we check on the turn or he will make a bet with a weak hand (e.g. medium pp) where we have some outs we did not consider it is often not possible or very close to play c/f. Therefore I think it is the best solution to push directly on the turn in order to use the remaining Fold Equity. With a half potsize reststack and only 20% Equity left 10% FE would be enough to ensure profit. Even with less equity (7 or 8 Outs) only 20% FE are enough to make a push profitable.

ad c)

should be clear. e.g. a lowcard board and another rag on the turn. or a very drawy board and a rag on the turn.
positive: some remaining outs (e.g. overcards)

ad d)

can be compared to c). however our opponent is most likely to float us on boards we have missed quite often or in
blindbattle situations. If I get a call on a KQ4 board I often assume to be beat. On the other hand lowcard boards
or J hi boards seem to be more likely a floating board. In order to put our opponent on a float we also need good reads.

Do you apply isolationraises from late position?

To start with I want to define an isolationraise:

"Singling out a player to go heads-up against him by pushing the opposition out of the game with aggressive actions.
Isolation is used to get a weak player in a pot by himself early in the game or to secure an advantage in position by
pushing out a player who could negate that advantage."
We only discuss situations where only 1 limper joined the game.

Let's first deal with the player types we can isolate:

- loose players who limp often
- bad players where we have a big edge - especially through our position
- weak players - often limp/fold preflop or limp/call but only continue to play postflop when the hit
- we can also isolate mediocre or even regular players. Imagine an middle position open limp by an aggressive player. This is often a weak hand.
In addition we will have more FE against these players since they know that they can't call us OOP with no implieds with speculative hands.

PT scores we should consider: VP$IP, PFR, ATS, Call PFR, fold to Cbet, WTS
Especially weak postflop stats bring us good profit since our cbet will work very often.

Which hand requirements are neccessary for an isolationraise?

We can either raise hands where we have equity against the limping range or a hand which has a good playability in position.
The latter would be 87s+, T9o+ or good suited Kings and Queens and of all broadway combinations.

A decent situation for an isolationraise. MP2 is loose enough to have a big limping range here. Moreover he is quite aggressive. Thus we can conclude that if he openlimps from MP2 he won't have a strong hand very often. Call PFR of 7.2 is not perfect but still not too high - with more than 8% I would however think properly about a raise. Our hand is also okay, maybe sometimes dominated by KT or KJ but suitedness compensates for this. In this situation however we could even get looser since the fold to cbet score is high enough to simply use our position advantage in order to make profit. I prefer to make isolationraises with 3.5BB+1 per limper. Of course I play my strong hands identically.